GATINEAU – So much work and hope was dashed yesterday for those hoping to replace Rogers Media’s OMNI on the TV dial.
The CRTC has decided Rogers will continue to operate its must-carry national ethnic language TV channel after renewing its license for OMNI Regional for three more years until August 2023. Its current license expires next summer.
This means the Commission has denied all of the other hopefuls, each of whom had rather interesting proposals for a new channel to serve the ethnic market.
“The new service, which will succeed Rogers’ existing OMNI Regional service, will be available on all digital basic television packages throughout Canada,” reads the CRTC press release. “The new OMNI Regional service will better reflect Canada’s diverse ethnic and linguistic communities and offer more news and information programming from a Canadian perspective.”
OMNI will receive $0.19 per subscriber per month beginning in August 2020. The company has already benefited from that privilege since August 2017, when they first were awarded the licence in a surprizing move by the Commission, but with a wholesale fee of $0.12.
“Most notably the provision of third-language news and information programming presented from a Canadian perspective, the amount of programming broadcast that is original, first-run content and the distribution of third-language and ethnic programming from various regions across Canada,” reads the decision, explaining the CRTC’s reasoning.
Rogers will continue to operate four feeds serving B.C., the Prairies, Ontario and Atlantic Canada, and Québec.
Each week Rogers must broadcast:
- six hours of local original newscasts from Vancouver, Calgary/Edmonton and Toronto;
- six daily, original national newscasts, seven days per week in at least six different third languages;
- Two hours of programming in Manitoba and/or Saskatchewan and Atlantic Canada;
- 100% of its schedule with ethnic programs, and no less than 80% to third-language programming, and
- 70% of Canadian programming.
In Quebec, Rogers must air:
- three hours of original, local, ethnic programming in French per week;
- one and a half hours of local, original French-language programming;
- 30 minutes of local, original English-language programming;
- no less than 90% of its schedule to ethnic programming and 60% to third-language programming.
OMNI must continue to operate the five OMNI over-the-air stations, too, and they may solicit local advertising in markets where OMNI over-the-air stations operate.
“Canadians require access to high-quality local news and programming from a Canadian viewpoint in various languages. Being able to watch content in one’s mother tongue adds a sense of belonging for many, enables participation in civic affairs and our democracy, and helps ensure that Canada’s diversity is reflected in our broadcasting system,” said Ian Scott, chairperson and CEO of the CRTC, in the release.
Rogers convinced the CRTC that there should be mandatory carriage for OMNI, otherwise it would go out of business. The seven other denied applicants are now wondering if they ever had a chance.
“We are disappointed. The TLN-ATN application for CanadaWorldTV is a collaboration of ethnic, minority-led multicultural broadcasters with decades of experience and credibility. With the support of CBC’s vast news gathering operations our application promised news for not four or six linguistic groups like OMNI, but for 20 language communities – and at only 2/3rds the cost of OMNI TV’s proposal,” said Aldo Di Felice President, TLN Media Group. “Without seeking their support, we were endorsed by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre as the preferred application. Not to mention a large number of important Canadian individuals, leaders, groups and businesses.”
“The decision does not explain where we failed." – Aldo Di Felice, Telelatino
De Felice has questions, however. “The decision does not explain where we failed. It seems the threat of OMNI’s shutdown has again resulted in another bailout. All told, the $45 million granted in 2017 plus the additional $60 million granted now means that Rogers will receive over $100 million dollars to support its multicultural service. While minority led multicultural services like ours receive zero,” he said.
“In fact, the money flows in the opposite direction. Since I joined TLN in 1998, we have made $2.5 million in regulatory fees payments to the CRTC and we have recently been directed to pay several million dollars more into the industry on top of our regular Canadian spending commitments. It is a mind-boggling incongruence,” he went on.
“And the competitive imbalance does not stop there. We receive no guarantee of distribution into people’s TV homes. In fact, it is our competitor Rogers that determines how visible and well distributed on their system our channels which compete with OMNI are made. The reduction in visibility of our channels has already happened in the past year and the system provides no viable recourse or material protections for Canadian ethnic broadcasters.
“We need to ask ourselves some hard questions,” De Felice continued.
“How long can Canadian minority-led organizations that are not beholden to vertically integrated behemoth companies survive when being pushed into the corners of the industry by a system that fails to recognize, appreciate, facilitate and protect our contributions?" – Di Felice
“Will such regulatory decisions that make our existence more and more precarious soon lead to a reduction in the diversity and availability of ethnic Canadian television services? Ones that have for years met the needs and fed the desires and creative talents of multicultural Canadians? How long can Canadian minority-led organizations that are not beholden to vertically integrated behemoth companies survive when being pushed into the corners of the industry by a system that fails to recognize, appreciate, facilitate and protect our contributions?
“Hopefully, someone who cares will have the courage to ask these questions before they don’t matter anymore,” he concluded.
Rogers Media, of course, was happy with the decision. “After a highly-competitive process, we appreciate that the Commission has entrusted us to continue to deliver the quality third-language and ethnic programming Canadian viewers deserve. Today’s decision grants OMNI Television greater stability and recognizes its longstanding contributions and the value it brings to Canada’s multicultural communities,” said Rick Brace, president, Rogers Media.
“This is great news for our OMNI Television team, for the more than 60 local independent producers we work with, and for the diverse communities we serve and celebrate every day. It’s a wonderful validation of the local and regional news strategy that makes OMNI Television so unique,” added Colette Watson, senior vice president of TV and broadcast operations.
For its part, Unifor, the union representing 100 journalists and media workers at Rogers OMNI television welcomes today’s CRTC. “This is the CRTC’s vote of confidence in the quality of TV programming that our Unifor members deliver every day,” said Unifor national president Jerry Dias. “The focus on local news in the licence conditions is appropriate and what our ethnically diverse communities deserve.”
Unifor is disappointed, however, by the failure of the CRTC to adopt many of its recommendations. The union had recommended licence conditions that would require proper staffing of news operations and a ban on contracting out of broadcasts to low-wage media companies.
“The CRTC raised both the news programming obligations and the subscriber fees required to pay for it,” said Howard Law, Unifor Media Director. “But capping it at 19 cents for three years without regard to rising costs and falling advertising revenues is troubling. We don’t want to see quality undercut by more contracting out or layoffs.”
Appeals to the Cabinet have to be filed within 45 days of the decision…
